95.4% of the national budget released by the end of July

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) reported that agency allotment releases in 2015 continue to outpace last year’s rates, with 95.4 percent of funds has already been made available to departments as of July 31. This figure is 2.5 percent or P203.08 million higher than allotment releases to agencies over the first seven months of 2014.

“We continue to focus on implementing the current year’s budget efficiently, even as the 2016 budget planning process is underway. Now that most of the 2015 Budget has been released, we urge agencies to make the most of the funds released to them. You see, faster agency spending isn’t just a matter of supporting economic growth. It’s also a matter of ensuring the timely delivery of goods and services to the public,” Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad said.

The budget chief also countered recent claims that the government is holding back releases until the second half of the year.

“The figures clearly show that most of the 2015 National Budget has already been released to the appropriate agencies in the first half of the year. This alone disproves allegations that we’re holding back releases as part of an absurd, grandiose strategy for the 2016 polls,” Abad added.

Allotment releases in July 2015 bring the percentage of the original P2.606-trillion program already released up to 88.7 percent. This represents a slight increase over last year’s proportion, when 88.4 percent of the P2.265 trillion budget had been released by July.

“We’re following through with our commitment to release agency allotments at the soonest possible time. The GAA-as-Release-Document regime, in place since last year, has largely allowed agency to focus on project execution,” Abad said.

To help agencies in the quicker execution and implementation of projects and programs, the DBM has already introduced several measures aimed at strengthening and improving procurement processes and project implementation.